During my internship with Coffee Elf, I worked on creating a sustainability marketing plan and report. The company aims to repurpose unused coffee beans to create products such as tote bags, coffee mugs, and stationary. Soon, they will be launching cleaner, more sustainable personal care items that I was also able to contribute to. This project aligned well with Coffee Elf’s mission to use entrepreneurship to tackle social and environmental challenges. Much of my internship was spent learning about sustainable practices and better educating consumers, investors, and others to understand the importance of addressing this issue.

My current degree focuses heavily on environmental science and sustainability. I utilized my skills from in and outside the classroom to create sustainability plans and reports for Coffee Elf. Understanding data analytics, marketing strategy, and biochemistry have been particularly useful in creating deliverables for the organization. Coffee Elf is still in the startup phase of their operations, which can affect the tasks of day-to-day work. For example, if supervisors get caught up in investor meetings, this might mean they are unavailable to look over some of my work from that day. This requires flexibility and adjusting one’s schedule accordingly. Tasks are also prone to being added on last minute, which requires us to move things around to ensure all deadlines and tasks are aligned. With multiple moving parts that come along with a startup environment, I have learned the importance of flexibility and time management.

Some of my key takeaways from this experience included finding a community of mentorship in sustainability, having meaningful social impact, and working in areas in which I felt confident in my expertise. I also felt very humbled working on an all-women led team, all of whom were willing to mentor me and help me find my place within the organization.

Educating others on the importance of sustainability was a positive social impact that motivated me to work hard towards my project goals. It was rewarding to watch myself become an expert on the projects I contributed to, and knowing the organization will be using market analytics I worked on to formulate new products for future launches. Coffee Elf allowed me to apply my passions in a meaningful way, and I look forward to the next steps in my career impacted by this internship.